The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew Mutava Mulwa gave his step-by-step account of how the government lost a Ksh3.7 billion mosquito net tender.
Appearing before the Senate Health Committee, Mulwa sought to clear his name over his involvement in the deal that saw Global Fund cancel an initial tender to distribute 12 million Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs).
The KEMSA CEO, who served as acting Director in the Directorate of Medical Services, Preventive and Promotive Health, absolved himself from any wrongdoing during the tendering process of the multi-billion deal.
In detailed documents obtained by Kenyans.co.ke, Mulwa laid bare the conversations between his then-office Directorate of Medical Services, Division of National Malaria Program and State Department of Public Health.
On October 12, 2022, the CEO noted that he received a letter from the Malaria Division Program notifying his office that Global Fund was willing to support Kenya procure LLINs and that he was supposed to forward the procurement memo to Principal Secretary (PS) for Health for further action.
His submissions to the Senate Health Committee revealed that Mulwa acted per instructions and sent the letter the same day which was subsequently forwarded to the National Treasury on October 22, 2023.
The Malaria Division on February 20, 2023, wrote back to Mulwa noting that there were inconsistencies in specifications for LLINs.
“I was informed by the then Head of Malaria Program that the LLINS procurement as advertised by KEMSA had missed the type of impregnation and that he thought that should be included in the tender,” read the statement in part.
The CEO noted that at that time, he wrote back advising the Head of the Malaria program to write through the established channel for such to be communicated to the PS.
Mulwa told the Mandago-led team that after the conversation, he was bypassed for communications between the Malaria division, KEMSA and the PS for Public Health.
“On or around February 23, 2023, I learned through the newspapers and National Treasury that the LLINS tender had been floated by KEMSA on the advice from the PS Public Health.
“I later learnt that the PS had acted on an advisory from the head of the Malaria program which incidentally was not processed through the Head of Department or my office,” he told the Senate.
Two months later, on April 2023, Global Fund cancelled the tender due to inconsistencies in the procurement process.
While KEMSA approved five companies to be given the multi-billion tender, investigations by Global Fund showed that they were not qualified and that two qualified companies had been ignored.
“The Global Fund review of the 5 bids that the Tender Evaluation Committee had assessed as responsive did not yield the same result,” the international body noted.
Following the cancellation, President William Ruto on Monday, May 15, revoked the appointment of Josephine Mburu as PS for Public Health and subsequently dissolved the entire KEMSA board.
At the same time, Ruto appointed Mulwa as the new KEMSA CEO and the appointment of Terry Ramadhani was revoked.
